Saturday, January 26, 2008

Only The Room Is Virtual--The Waiting Is Quite Real

Done and done. It wasn't looking good for the Jerinator on this January morning. Last night, I discovered something slightly off with the ticketing page. This morning, I devised a plan, but worried that maybe by doing that, I was only throwing myself off the trail, while the people who go in clueless end up with all the tix.

At 10:02, my ticket buddy who you know as savethejellyfish announces he has already cleaned up, having gotten through five seconds in.

By 10:30 (an eternity later in VWR time), he's told me that the thing I'd discovered was indeed the key to getting in right away, only I hadn't taken it to the next level. (I'll spare you the details of what it was--he mentions it in the comments of my previous post.)

By 10:40, I'm burnin' up, burnin' up for your lo-uhve, kicking myself for having recognized something, but not having seen it through, and therefore still ticketless, wondering if I'd have been in by then had I just gone in blind.

Around 10:45, though, a window pops up. I am in. This is always the classic Costanza "tippy toe" moment. You've got everything written out. Reams of paper with detailed instructions, charts and graphs that "last night you" has created. Oh, the naivete of some dude who's sitting there calmly the night before, with no clocks ticking, no heart pounding....

So I got my four Cardinals tickets. But I scrapped my plan of waiting til "later" (come on) to get the game my parents will go to with us (using my mom's card), and just nabbed them right there with my remaining four allotted tickets.

Surprisingly, though, another window did pop within minutes of me getting the first eight tickets. So I got two more foursomes on my mom's card, she now unsuspectingly being charged for two games she won't attend. Fear not, she will be paid back in full.

When that was done, much like the guy from King Missile in his cheesecake truck, I had to get more tickets. So it was on to my girlfriend's card. We got another Friday night summer game for the two of us. The beauty of having the 10-game plan is you can sell those pre-selected games to other people (to friends, for face value!), and buy new and better games for yourself with that money. And if you get upper bleachers, you can turn a 10-game pre-selected plan into a 20-game personalized pack. If you wanted to. And if you have enough people with credit cards willing to give up the digits. (But then you just end up going to most of the games yourself anyway....)

So, basically, I got a lot of 12 dollar seats together for the games I wanted. Cards, Brewers, three other summer weekends. And I can take three people to these. So, again, I say, it's not impossible to go to Fenway Park, and it's rather cheap. Don't be fooled. It just takes a little planning and a little time--and a little luck does help. If you were shut out this morning, just know I feel your pain.

I should point out by the way that all these tickets were very delicious.

That is so crazy. I even got in a few more times over the course of the day and just looked to see what was left even though I had already hit my limit. But believe me, I've been right where you are now plenty in the past.